[monty_dweezil]

Last night while observing another grooming / loving session between Monty and Dweezil on our bed, we were wondering if it means that Dweezil is the dominant cat since he always grooms Monty and won’t usually let Monty groom him for very long. Does anyone know if that means he’s the dominant one? Cause in their other behaviours (playing, eating, general wandering around), they seem fairly equal.

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[Miss Bronte]

Hi there

In colonies of cats, grooming behaviour 'tends' to move down-rank....I say 'tends' because felines are wonderfully varied and don't always conform to scientific principles Allo-grooming behaviour seems to be a form of social bonding AND a way of reducing tension - ever noticed how good-natured washing can descend into a brawl with little warning?

However, when you have 2 cats living together it does become a little more complicated, particularly when those 2 cats don't want for anything e.g. food, space etc as any rank-based behaviour is based on the availability for resources and the motivation each of those animals has for those resources at that particular time. In our house, Lilly definitely rules the roost and washes her daughter, Brontë, within an inch of her life......however she is yet to wash the new foster failure kitten so I suspect that there is an aspect of both social bonding AND social rank. Clear as mud, eh?

This post has been edited by Miss Bronte: 27 October 2009 - 10:26 AM

[monty_dweezil]

Heheh, yes. I think probably about 90% of the times Dweezil is grooming Monty, it starts out loving and relaxed, and then ends in violence. LOL. The other 10% the grooming session is aborted prematurely because of some distraction like meal time or a loud noise or something more interesting.
It usually starts to get violent because Dweezil either gets a bit passionate in his grooming and goes for the jugular, or Monty gets a bit over being groomed for so long and wakes up a bit (comes out of his grooming drugged state, lol) and starts getting a bit feisty.
Yeah, our 2 boys don’t want for anything. We feed them at the same time, the same (or similar) food, they always have water, play things, places to sleep that they both like, warmth and coolness, and love from us.
Hmm…as long as they love each other, that’s all I really care about!! We’re very pleased so far that we still find them snuggled up together sometimes (not as much though as when they were young) and they’re mostly together. They don’t seem to have a heap of personal space needs. Like they’ll both sit right next to each other when looking out the window together, and if one walks right past the other’s fact, there’s no reaction. Last night Monty was sitting on the floor in the study and Dweezil walked up and plonked himself down right in front of Monty and in fact, almost ON him, and began licking his penis. LMAO! Monty didn’t seem to mind and didn’t even move to get more space. Heheh.